By James A. Haught | 8 February 2023
Freethought Now
The philosophical quandary called “the problem of evil” proves that an all-loving father-god cannot exist.
No all-merciful creator would design leukemia to kill children – or breast cancer for women – or global pandemics like Covid 19 – or cruel birth defects like spina bifida – or tsunamis that drown thousands – or earthquakes that kill hundreds – or predators that rip innocent animals apart – etc., etc.
Thus simple logic wipes out the compassionate deity of Christianity.
Taking logic further, apply it to the supernatural notion of heaven and hell:
Each human personality is created by our huge brain, the most complex object in the universe. Logic implies that personhood dies when the brain dies. It doesn’t make sense that one’s identity would leave the dead body and travel magically to an invisible place.
If heaven and hell aren’t real, and the biblical god is a fantasy, he couldn’t have planted his half-human son in a virgin, allowed him to be executed, then resurrected him to heaven. More logic also raises doubts about Satan, the Virgin Mary, angels, demons, miracles, prophecies, hundreds of invisible saints and the rest of the supernatural spectrum.
A thinking person is struck by a conclusion that the gigantic worldwide religion of Christianity – followed by more than two billion people – is just fiction. It has no factual reality. It was cooked up long ago, in ignorant times, by various people’s imaginations.
Comedian George Carlin put it this way:
Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it: Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever, till the end of time! But he loves you. He loves you, and he needs money. He always needs money. He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money. Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy shit!
What’s wrong with humanity, that two billion people swallow a magic tale and think it’s real?
Reprinted with permission from the author.
James A. Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginia’s The Charleston Gazette-Mail and a senior editor of the Free Inquiry magazine. He is also the author of numerous books and articles; his most recent book is Religion is Dying: Soaring Secularism in America and the West (Gustav Broukal Press, 2010). Haught has won 21 national newswriting awards and thirty of his columns have been distributed by national syndicates. He is in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Contemporary Authors, and 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century. His website is haught.net."Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness" by James Haught. https://t.co/Mt7KVrhHMD pic.twitter.com/91SMfcVXlK
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) March 18, 2019
George Carlin – Stand Up About Religion
Growing number of Americans are leaving organized religion
Is religion dying in America? | Rush Hour Roundtable
Why Christianity is in Decline in the West
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